Bedbugs Suspected Inside Wall Street Journal’s Office

Bedbugs have made their way inside retailers, movie theaters, hospitals, government offices and, of course, homes across New York City. It turns out newspapers are not immune. Not even the newspaper you’re reading this very moment.

A section of the fourth floor at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown, otherwise known as the main offices of The Wall Street Journal and the New York headquarters of its parent company, News Corp., have been cleared for bedbug treatment on Monday.

A spokeswoman for the company traced the suspected bedbug outbreak to a staff member for Barron’s, a weekly financial newspaper that, like The Journal, is a part of News Corp.’s Dow Jones subsidiary. “After a Barron’s staffer…informed us of bed bugs inside his apartment building, we arranged to test the area around his desk,” the spokeswoman explained. “We found no bugs. Nor could we find any physical sign of bugs.”

But as a further precaution, the company brought in a bedbug-sniffing dog, which have become increasingly common tools in the fight against infestations. The sniffer dog “did signal concerns,” the spokesperson added. “So even though we can’t find any specific evidence of any bugs, we will steam clean and treat the area to make sure no problem manifests itself.”